Minnie Finn began her quest for another Ladbrokes Country Classic (LCC) crown in style overnight with Zipping Ronaldo, Binalong Time and Zipping Orlando all qualifying for the semi-finals of the rich race series.
The trio, alongside the Jake White-trained Rebel Ethics, finished in the top four in their Nowra qualifier on Monday night and will now head to Dubbo in just over two weeks as they attempt to gain a spot in the $125,000 feature final on March 16.
But it’s not just the lucrative prizemoney purse Finn has her eyes on in the Central West.
“I can’t wait to get to Dubbo to get on that bucking bull they’ve got,” an excited Finn said.
“Apparently on final night there will be a mechanical bull at the track and there’s $1000 for whoever stays on the longest. I’ve been on a few bulls in my time but [Shayne] Stiffy reckons he’ll end up taking me to hospital when I fall off.”
“Raymond [Smith] reckons he’s going on it as well and he used to be a jockey so he might be my biggest danger.”
Speaking of stiff competition, Zipping Ronaldo staked his claim for the LCC title after clocking a winning time of 36.88 over the Nowra 630m.
Finn still bullish about the chances of the reigning ‘715’ winner despite admitting he has been below his best of late.
“I still have Orlando as the number one seed and think if he can draw an inside box at Dubbo, he’s my best chance. He’s been going alright, but he pulled a stopper pad off at Gosford earlier this year and that’s been bothering him a bit,” Finn said.
“But now that he is through, I’ve got a bit of time to get it right. They were all having their first look t the place so I was pretty happy. Last year it seemed people didn’t want to go to the Nowra qualifier, maybe because it’s a harder 600m, so we targeted the race and my dogs seemed to like it.”
Zipping Ronaldo relishing the short turnaround after scoring at Richmond on Friday night, but it was the youngest of the three Finn runners that drew the boldest declaration from Minnie.
“I told one of the owners last Thursday that I’ll be winning the Association Cup with Binalong Time and he laughed at me,” Finn said with confidence.
“She looks like her mother [Poco Dorado] and I think she’s going to be a little Poco. She’s dying for 700 and she’ll be a front runner stayer just like mum.”
The Cranebrook-based mentor also pinning Father Rick as the dog to beat in this year’s series.
Queenslander Tom Tzouvelis might have a thing or two to say about that though after Scintillate scorched her way into the semi-finals with a dominant victory at Grafton in ‘The Clarence’ on Sunday evening.
The daughter of Konomi x Sherbini claiming the race from rising star Off The Richter and long-time leader Mean Girl, with Adelmo Bale also booking a ticket to the semi-finals at Dubbo on March 9.
“It was a bit of rough and tumble on the first corner with Sanisha was trying to get across and it caused a bit of carnage…Scintillate was able to get through and get the clear run…once she got into second I was pretty confident she could run Maty Reid’s dog [Mean Girl] down,” Tzouvelis said post-race.
The 49-year-old now preparing for a 20-hour round trip to Dubbo and back to trial Scintillate this Saturday night in the hope she can give the kennel their first LCC finalist.
“We had Sunburst in the semis the first year and Sorority and Shaye last year so we’ve been trying to win it. I just think it’s a fantastic race and I’m one of the biggest supporters of middle distance and staying racing,” Tzouvelis said.
“We bought a lot of dogs three and four years ago with the plan to try and have stayers and luckily some of our owners have bred the same way. I think staying races are making a resurgence and money like this should encourage more trainers to prepare their dogs to go up in distance.”
“You get paid the further you run in QLD and that’s how it should be. I still remember when Warren Nicholls had Days Of Thunder, he said he nominated 16 times one year and couldn’t get a run. He was probably the best dog in QLD and we didn’t see him run for 16 weeks. We don’t want to see that happening so the addition of races like ‘The Clarence’ and ‘The Richmond’ to support the Country Classic is a great idea.”
The Ladbrokes Country Classic preliminaries continue this week with heats to be held at Gosford (Tuesday), Temora (Wednesday), Dapto (Thursday), Richmond and The Gardens (Friday) and Dubbo (Saturday).
